13 Tips for Keeping Personal and Professional Life Separate

Question: What is one tip you have for keeping your personal and professional life separate?

Don’t Use Your Facebook Profile for Work

“Use a Facebook page to promote your business, and keep your Facebook profile for actual friends and family only. Many people make the mistake of blurring the line and they’re left with the worst of both worlds: They can’t promote on Facebook because they’ll annoy their friends, and they can’t be too personal for fear of coming across as unprofessional with prospects. Separate the two.” — Laura Roeder, MeetEdgar.com

Schedule Your Life, Too

“Reserve personal time in your schedule for activities that allow you to recharge and that add value, such as daily exercise, a weekly date or social night, family activities and vacation. You will not only have something to look forward to, but by reserving personal time you will have extra motivation to manage your time well so you do not have to cancel on others — or yourself!” — Doug Bend, Bend Law Group, PC

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“I used to let my business drive all over my personal life because I didn’t have any set boundaries. Plans with my girlfriend, family and friends would often get delayed or cancelled because I was busy at the office. After a while, I noticed that it took a significant toll on my most important relationships, and I made the decision to always start and end things on time. It’s helped tremendously.” — Mark Krassner, Knee Walker Central

Pursue Multiple Passions

“Have friends and activities outside of work that you are equally as passionate about as your company. Expect business matters to interrupt you and call you away, but cherish the time with your outside activities. This task is purely a mental process.” — Jon Cline, Rokit SEO

Maintain a Very High Sense of Professionalism

“In most ways, I prefer to integrate my personal and professional life 100 percent of the time. I love really caring for the people I work with and working with the people that I care about. That being said, I do think there is a certain responsibility that comes with leadership. I always highly recommend to people that they maintain a very high sense of professionalism in their working relationships.” — Dan Price, Gravity Payments

Choose Wisely

“I work with my husband, sister and one of my best friends at my marketing firm. I have to say that it’s working out really well. For about a year and a half we have worked out a system of communication and established boundaries that allow us to leave work at work, and leave our personal issues out of the office. Not everyone can handle it. You have to communicate expectations and limits.” — Maren Hogan, Red Branch Media

Separate Your Email Accounts

“Having a custom personalized domain is an effective way of separating your personal and professional email correspondence. Your own domain and brand can stay with you from company to company. Your company email account can then be used only to communicate with those required by your profession, and your personal email account is for those you’d communicate with outside of work.” — Mark Cenicola, BannerView.com

Meditate

“Meditation has allowed me to mentally disconnect from work when I get home at night. There is a great app, Headspace, that is a perfect ‘starter course’ for first-time users. The app eases you in by making you clear your mind for 10 minutes a day, for 10 days. Having the ability to disconnect when getting home has allowed me to be more creative and frees my mind for new ideas. ” — Kim Kaupe, ZinePak

Remember That at Work, You Are a Boss First

“As an entrepreneur, you spend a lot of time with your team. They become your morning, noon and night people. It’s OK to be both personal and professional friends, but you need to remember that you are their boss first. Make sure you are responsible, that they respect you, and that you are a good role model for work ethic.” — Amanda L. Barbara, Pubslush

Leave the Office

“I used to get stuck at the office until all hours of the night. That’s not good for your personal life and loved ones who are waiting at home for you. So I made one simple change. I booked a family function to attend every night of the week. It could be as simple as dinner or a family walk at a local park. Just thinking about standing your family up forces you to be there with them.” — Logan Lenz, Endagon

Disconnect From Technology

“I truly believe that this separation no longer exists. The better question is how to disconnect. For me, turning my phone off and going for a hike, a bike ride or another activity in nature is immensely relaxing.” — Matthew Moisan, Moisan Legal, P.C.

Turn Off Push Notifications

“Everyone carries a mobile smartphone these days. It’s almost impossible to keep things separate. However, you should disconnect from your email after a certain time during the day. If you’re on the golf course or out to dinner with family, turn off push email notifications. You can always get up early the next day to respond.” — Jason Grill, JGrill Media | Sock 101

Be Both Professional and Personable

“My rule of thumb is to make sure that anything that goes online that is tied to me personally (or the company) reflects us in a very positive light. If you’re putting something online you should be OK with the entire world seeing it. When I have personal time, I try to use airplane mode on my phone to keep from constantly being distracted when winding down.” — Jeff McGregor, Dash

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